Stop me if you have heard this one before. Visionary filmmaker Zack Snyder has a new movie coming out. But word already is circulating that an alternate cut of the movie exists, and in the words of the filmmaker, it offers “almost like a different movie, it’s almost a different universe.” The director has done this for basically all of his movies, be it the preferred director’s cut of Watchmen, to the perpetual saga that surrounded the Snyder Cut of Justice League. We are getting Rebel Moon: Part One - A Child of Fire on Netflix after the movie received a limited (very, very limited) theatrical run. But why isn’t the initial version of the movie Snyder’s preferred cut?
While doing press on behalf of Rebel Moon, Zack Snyder opened up about having a PG-13 version of the movie, and an R-rated cut of the story. He says that it has been a collaboration with Netflix to make “a very commercial version” that’s available for theaters. This usually means a close-to-two-hour run time, and softer approaches to sex and violence. Earlier this year, while visiting the Los Angeles set of Rebel Moon, I learned how Star Wars influenced this story, but also, that this was going to be the harder, R-rated take on a story set in a galaxy far, far away. Rebel Moon baddie Ed Skrein literally promised us a movie that delivered Star Wars with tons of sex and violence.
